Protecting a few can help the many

What is it about?

The effects of psychological interventions do not end with the individual. People who benefit from a psychological intervention can positively change their social environment in ways that return benefits to everyone else in the environment, regardless of whether they participated in the intervention. In our study we measured the emergent effects of protecting African American middle schoolers from negative stereotypes about their academic ability. Previous studies reported how African Americans who completed a psychological intervention called a values affirmation experienced reduced stereotype threat and improved grades. Might these students also be improving their classroom environment? We found that classrooms with higher concentrations of affirmed African Americans triggered improved academic performance among all classmates regardless of classmates' race and intervention condition. White students who saw no effects from participating in the intervention still gained from being in classrooms with more affirmed African Americans. African American students who benefitted from the affirmation saw a second wave of benefits from being in classrooms with more affirmed African American classmates.

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Why is it important?

This paper is important because it is the first experimental test of a psychological intervention's ability to trigger emergent ecological effects that change the environment and benefit the whole group. Psychological interventions are typically measured only for direct effects on intervention participants relative to control group participants. But when interventions occur within groups, such as classrooms, the changed individuals can alter their group's dynamics in ways that improve the social environment and bring a second wave of benefits to everyone who shares that environment. For instance, a classroom with relatively fewer students experiencing stereotype threat may trigger a host of second-wave benefits such as higher norms of performance or a more energized teacher who can help a more manageable number of struggling students. Everyone in such a classroom may improve their learning, and that is what we found. Researchers may be telling only half the story when they measure only the direct effects of an intervention and overlook the emergent effects that might be triggered at the group level. Indeed, our studies found that the intervention's emergent effects for all group members could be even larger than the direct effects on the treated members.

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